• In closings Tuesday, defense lawyer Todd Blanche tried the classic ” but if he did do it” defense.

• If Trump did falsify documents, he didn’t do it with the required criminal intent, Blanche argued.

• He then showed jurors 3 prosecution exhibits where Trump admits to the hush-money reimbursement.

It’s the classic defense closing argument: My client didn’t do it, ladies and gentlemen — but if he did do it, it wasn’t intentional.

This is the argument that Donald Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, tried out on the hush-money jury in Manhattan on Tuesday.

Yes, Blanche spent the bulk of his arguments denying that Trump committed the charges he’s on trial for.

Prosecutors say Trump falsified 34 business records to hide a year’s worth of reimbursement payments to his then-attorney, Michael Cohen, who had fronted a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Trump was not involved with any such conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, Blanche told jurors in great detail on Tuesday, during a three-hour summation.

But if he was involved, there was no requisite intent to commit fraud, Blanche argued. How could there be, he asked, when Trump freely and repeatedly admitted to reimbursing Cohen?

Blanche then showed the jury three exhibits from the prosecution’s own case.

Each exhibit — showing a tax form, a tweet, and a government ethics form — was shown on the courtroom’s display screens.

Each bolsters the prosecution’s case: that Trump knew full well that the $130,000 he paid Cohen in installments throughout 2017 was for reimbursement, not legal fees as his business-record entries falsely claimed.

“The government has to prove to you that President Trump caused these entries — even if they were false — with an intent to defraud,” Blanche told jurors.

“Where is the intent to defraud on the part of President Trump?” the lawyer asked the jury.

Prosecutors must demonstrate Trump had an intent to defraud in order to prove first-degree falsifying business records, the state charge that Trump allegedly violated 34 times throughout 2017, including when he personally signed nine of Cohen’s reimbursement checks.

At another point in Blanche’s summations, he earned the anger of the judge by telling jurors “You cannot send somebody to prison based on what Michael Cohen is saying.” Jurors are supposed to weigh only the facts in their deliberations — not the potential punishment.

“That was outrageous, Mr. Blanche,” state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan told Blanche after jurors were dismissed for lunch.

“Someone who’s been a prosecutor as long as you have, and a defense lawyer as long as you have, knows it’s highly inappropriate,” the judge said.

“It’s simply not allowed. Period,” the judge added. He gave a curative instruction to the jury, explaining that Blanche’s comment was “improper” and that if Trump is convicted, “a prison sentence is not required.” Falsifying business records carries a sentence of anywhere from zero jail to four years prison.

Here are the three exhibits that Blanche displayed in court for jurors as “proof” that Trump had nothing to hide and therefore could not have intended to defraud anyone.

1. A 1099 tax form from 2017

The Trump Organization — and Trump as an individual — reported that they’d paid Michael Cohen a total of $420,000 in 2017.

Prosecutors say this is the sum Trump’s then CFO, Allen Weisselberg, calculated for what Cohen would be paid as reimbursement for his hush-money outlay, plus taxes and other money Trump owed him.

1. Why would Trump announce these payments to the IRS “if there was some deep-rooted intent to defraud on the part of President Trump?” Blanche asked jurors.

   

2. A 2018 tweet

On May 3, 2018, Trump posted a somewhat garbled tweet that concedes the payments he’d made to Cohen throughout 2017 were, in his word, “reimbursement.”

This tweet was made just five months after signing the last of nine $35,000 checks to Cohen. Each check was labeled “RETAINER.”

3. A government ethics form

Also during closing arguments, Blanche showed jurors what’s called an “Executive Branch Personnel Public Financial Disclosure Report” for the year 2017. This was the then-president’s mandatory disclosure of his assets and liabilities .

1. Under “Liablities” — which is the section where Trump must list the money he’s borrowed — Trump certified that in 2017, he “fully reimbursed” Cohen an interest-free sum of between $100,000 and $250,000.

   

“President Trump tweeted what happened when it came out,” and then signed a government ethics form that also admitted to the reimbursement, Blanche told jurors Tuesday.

“That’s not evidence of any intent to defraud,” Blanche said.

The defense lawyer spent most of his summation impugning the credibility of Cohen, whose testimony is key to the prosecution case.

Cohen is “literally like an MVP of liars,” Blanche told jurors. Two jurors — a woman in the front row and a man in the back row, smiled when Blanche went on to call Cohen “The ‘Gloat'” — for Greatest Liar of All Time.”

Deliberations are expected to begin on Wednesday.

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